My post below mentions that I've seen nine different butterflies in the garden this year. Meet number 10, who I saw on Sunday. Later on I saw three in the garden at the same time - I've never seen more than one at any time before.
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Number 10
My post below mentions that I've seen nine different butterflies in the garden this year. Meet number 10, who I saw on Sunday. Later on I saw three in the garden at the same time - I've never seen more than one at any time before.
Sunday, 6 September 2009
Autumn in almost here
I've neglected my blogs recently so here's a few creatures spotted in my garden the last month. First butterflies and their caterpillars.
A Comma on the comfrey.
A comma caterpillar on the hops. I discovered I had at least two. This one is probably at the latest instar stage and I didn't see either much longer after this.
Another peacock on the buddleia, which hopefully will have many more flowers and butterflies next year.
A Painted Lady (with a honeybee). I'd never seen one before this year.
A Small Tortoishell. I always remember these from when I was a kid at the old house. The marigolds do well for me in attracting butterflies.
A Speckled Wood on the plinth. This makes nine different species spotted in my garden this year. Missing from last year are the Red Admiral and Meadow Brown.
An earlier blog mentions the large white caterpillars on the cabbage that hatched mid-to-late July. This photo was taken on 19th August and shows one pretty much fully grown, with some relatively new hatched ones.
The cabbages are pretty much gone now with just a few small caterpillars doing their best. Many caterpillars have moved on to search out other plants.
A Comma on the comfrey.
A comma caterpillar on the hops. I discovered I had at least two. This one is probably at the latest instar stage and I didn't see either much longer after this.
Another peacock on the buddleia, which hopefully will have many more flowers and butterflies next year.
A Painted Lady (with a honeybee). I'd never seen one before this year.
A Small Tortoishell. I always remember these from when I was a kid at the old house. The marigolds do well for me in attracting butterflies.
A Speckled Wood on the plinth. This makes nine different species spotted in my garden this year. Missing from last year are the Red Admiral and Meadow Brown.
An earlier blog mentions the large white caterpillars on the cabbage that hatched mid-to-late July. This photo was taken on 19th August and shows one pretty much fully grown, with some relatively new hatched ones.
The cabbages are pretty much gone now with just a few small caterpillars doing their best. Many caterpillars have moved on to search out other plants.
Autumn is almost here (part 2)
Some other creatures:
A Migrant Hawker Dragonfly that posed nicely for me.
A Green Bottle that I'm pleased with.
A couple of spiders.
A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee (could be a white tailed but this seems to have a bit of colour on the tail)
One evening I spotted loads of caterpillars on a young hornbeam. I identified them as Buff-tip moths. They stick together eating a leaf at a time until they are in the latest instar stage and then all split up. I counted about 50 and wondered how much damage they would do - as it happened quite a lot, but the tree still has a few leaves and buds getting ready for next year. The caterpillars have gone, some were spotted around the garden. They pupate over winter in the soil.
Here's a couple I caught shedding their skins. The hairs are probably irritating.
A Migrant Hawker Dragonfly that posed nicely for me.
A Green Bottle that I'm pleased with.
A couple of spiders.
A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee (could be a white tailed but this seems to have a bit of colour on the tail)
One evening I spotted loads of caterpillars on a young hornbeam. I identified them as Buff-tip moths. They stick together eating a leaf at a time until they are in the latest instar stage and then all split up. I counted about 50 and wondered how much damage they would do - as it happened quite a lot, but the tree still has a few leaves and buds getting ready for next year. The caterpillars have gone, some were spotted around the garden. They pupate over winter in the soil.
Here's a couple I caught shedding their skins. The hairs are probably irritating.
Ladybirds
I don't get many ladybirds. I think I've seen three or four 7-spots and one 15-spot this year.
But back in July I was in for a surprise. I found 10 of these ugly looking things on the silver birch.
The are larvae of the Harlequin Ladybird, the much hated foreign invader. I was lucky enough to see this one shedding its skin as the pupa emerged.
A pupa that has darkened.
This one has not long emerged from its pupal stage.
They don't look like ours do they?
I moved one to the nasturtiums that were being destroyed by blackfly. Unfortunately they were too few too late.
But back in July I was in for a surprise. I found 10 of these ugly looking things on the silver birch.
The are larvae of the Harlequin Ladybird, the much hated foreign invader. I was lucky enough to see this one shedding its skin as the pupa emerged.
A pupa that has darkened.
This one has not long emerged from its pupal stage.
They don't look like ours do they?
I moved one to the nasturtiums that were being destroyed by blackfly. Unfortunately they were too few too late.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
